


The Balance

by Shi_Toyu



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, BAMF Thanos, BAMF Tony Stark, But Also Other Character Death, Canonical Character Death, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Strange Tried to Warn Him, Tony Stark Has Issues, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 19:45:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14479851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shi_Toyu/pseuds/Shi_Toyu
Summary: Warning: Spoilers for Infinity War within!Thanos' goal is to achieve balance, but he didn't consider all the factors.





	The Balance

“I hope your people remember you.”

Tony choked on the blood rising in his throat as Thanos pushed the blade deeper into his gut. His lips trembled, his hands shook. Thanos reached forward to stroke his hair gently.

“Stop!” They both turned to see Dr. Strange, still crumpled against the stone pile where he’d been throw, struggling to sit up. “You don’t want to do that.”

Thanos gave him a look that was sympathetic. From so close, Tony almost thought he could see pain in the great being’s eyes.

“I am well accustomed to doing things I don’t want to do. Much of life is not about what is wanted, but what is necessary. Sacrifices must be made.”

Then he twisted the blade and Tony gave a choked off cry before the world went dark. The last thing he heard was Peter’s desperate cry. Dammit. He knew he’d let the kid down in the end.

.

Tony appeared, and it really was an appearance, one second he was there when the second before he’d been… Well, he didn’t think he’d been anywhere, actually. He was in a jungle, by the looks of it, and could hear the sound of distant battle. Before him, he could see Thor standing before a kneeling Thanos, an ax buried in Thanos’ chest.

“What did you do?” Thor roared, and Thanos smiled.

It was Tony who answered, though.

“Nothing, yet.”

The two of them jerked around to stare at him, both seeming equally shocked. That was understandable, though. The last time Thanos had seen him, he’d been dead, and the last time Thor had seen him, he’d been alive. Now, he was neither. Resplendent in a cloak of shadow and ash, Tony stood before them now as nothing they’d ever seen before.

“Stark?” Thanos questioned, sounding uncertain.

Tony ignored him in favor of stepping carefully through the underbrush, passing over to where Vision’s still body lay, grey and broken. He stood, staring down at it for a long moment.

“You acquired the final stone, Thanos, son of Mentor. Do you believe balance to be within your reach?”

“Friend Stark,” Thor spoke, “what is the meaning of this?”

From her knelt position off to the side, Wanda trembled.

“That’s not Stark.”

Tony turned to face her slowly, taking in her fear.

“You are incorrect,” he informed her, “though not entirely. I _was_ Stark, once, but now I am much more. And the one I am now has always been and will always be. I exist outside of time, though I was unable to exist in the same moment that your companion did.”

Thanos gasped, the only one who seemed to have any understand of what Tony was saying.

“You are an Entity,” he marveled.

Tony graced him with a small smile.

“Yes.”

Tony turned again to watch as Steve crashed through the trees to join a fight he could not know was over, only to come up short. He stared at Tony, gob smacked.

“Tony?”

“Yes and no,” he answered, feeling no irritation at having to repeat himself. To a being that existed in all of eternity, patience was not nearly an adequate word. He turned his attention back to Thanos. “You have great power, for one so young.”

Thanos, slowly and painstakingly, heedless of the ax still in his chest, rose to his feet.

“It has been a long time since anyone has called _me_ young. How did you come to be here, Entity?”

“My death by your hands,” he said, ignoring the sharp inhales of the Avengers around them, “was the trigger for my creation. Now, your actions have called for my presence.” He raised a hand to point at Thanos’ gauntleted fist. “You know not the power you seek to wield.”

Thanos, to his credit, did not take insult to his reprimand. Of course, any who knew of the Entities knew they were not to be questioned.

“Tell me what I need to know, then. I have come this far, and none could hope to stand in my way, now that I have all of the stones. I will not stop until the balance is achieved.”

Such a blind, small minded creature. Tony would have pitied him if he had the capacity.

“You do not understand,” Tony reiterated. “You meddle in affairs beyond your reckoning.”

Here, Thanos’ expression turned calculating.

“What do you mean?”

“You wish to balance Life with Death by leaving only half of those living still alive. You do not consider that the dead do not disappear. Life is always at a deficit to Death. This is the way of things. Life must be allowed to continue, though, else Death will sweep over and consume all things. To cause such a massive influx… it does not come without a hefty price.”

He waited while Thanos considered him.

“I have already paid much to get here.”

“Gamora. I know. Her soul has entered our realm.”

Thanos’ relief was clear for any to see, though his sadness was perhaps better hidden.

“I do not know what greater price could be paid.”

This time, Tony’s smile was bigger.

“I can help with that.”

“Tony,” Steve breathed, devastation in his tone. “No…”

Tony knew he must feel this as a betrayal, but it wasn’t. The morals and confines he’d had as a mortal fed him and guided him, but they did not define or control him as they had when he was alive. No, he had… transcended that. Besides, so many deaths… Even he was unsure Thanos could pay the price for that.

“What are you called?” Thanos asked him.

Nostalgia was such a curious emotion, Tony considered as it swept through him.

“I am the Merchant,” he informed them, “The Merchant of Death.”

**Author's Note:**

> Because I will never not take an opportunity for Tony to be the actual Merchant of Death.


End file.
